In confidence of this, and being ourselves Soldiers, we apprehended we might with great safety prepare ourselves for settling the Lands we Petitioned for, and accordingly sold our Estates in New England, and have at near a Thousand Pounds Sterling expence Transported ourselves, Families and Stock, and are now Settled to the number of one Hundred persons, on St. John's River seventy miles from the Mouth; and a large number of disbanded officers and soldiers in confidence of the same Encouragement have now sold all their Possessions in New England and are hiring Vessels to Transport themselves and Settle among us. We were not a little astonished when we were informed by his Majesty's Governor and Council here that we could not have a Grant of the Lands we have settled ourselves upon. We therefore humbly apply to your Lordships to Lay our Cause before his most Gracious Majesty for whose service we have often exposed our lives in America, that he would be pleased to direct the Governor and Council here to Grant us these Lands, we are now settled upon, as the Removal therefrom would prove our utter Ruin and Destruction. We have been at no expence to the crown and intend to be at none, and are settled two hundred miles from any other English Settlement. And your Memorialists as in duty bound shall ever pray. Recd. & Read Decr. 16, 1763. CHAPTER XXI. THE FIRM OF HAZEN, JARVIS, SIMONDS & WHITE. The circumstances under which James Simonds, William Hazen and their associates organized the first trading company at St. John have been already related. Their business contract was signed on the 1st of March, 1764. In the course of a year or two the character of the original company was essentially altered by the death of Richard Simonds, the retirement of Samuel Blodget and Richard Peaslie and the admission of Leonard Jarvis as a new partner. Questions had also arisen as to the rights of the several partners in the lands granted in 1765 to James Simonds, James White and Richard Simonds. In order to settle these questions a new business contract was signed at Newburyport, on the 16th April, 1767, by James Simonds, Leonard Jarvis and William Hazen. The original contract is yet in existence amongst the papers of the Hazen family. It is in the handwriting of Leonard Jarvis and is a well worn document which bears marks of having been repeatedly handled. This is not to be wondered at for this contract proved a veritable storm-centre in the litigation that ensued relative to the division of the lands between the partners. The legal proceedings assumed various phases and occupied the attention of the courts for a period of twenty years.[87]